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What Hong Kong's Occupy Central can learn from the Tahrir Square uprising.

The nine-day-long protests for more democracy in Hong Kong are starting to lose steam, but hundreds of occupiers remain on the streets. As one of the so-called "voices" of the January 25 uprising, I can't help but notice how similar the images coming out of Hong Kong have been to those produced by Cairo's Tahrir Square uprising during those 18 days in 2011.

Don't think that this will be over soon. This is fundamentally a war of patience and a test of our endurance," 17-year-old Joshua Wong, student leader of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, tweeted on Thursday. For the past several weeks, the protesters have been putting on a clinic in organized, disciplined civil resistance: Tens of thousands of activists continue to throng the downtown streets and thoroughfares, demanding the resignation of Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying and threatening to occupy government buildings. Occupy Central, student coalitions, and other opposition groups have called for mass strikes while insisting that they will not back down until their ultimate goal of universal suffrage is achieved. Still, as momentum has slowed, the lingering question is, what next?

Immigration officials from the Interior Ministry and Pursat province today are to begin a census of all foreigners living in the Kingdom, though it is expected to focus primarily on those of Vietnamese descent.

Following a meeting in Pursat yesterday afternoon, Major General Khun Sambor, chief of the ministry’s intelligence department, told the Post that a census across the province was scheduled to begin.

“Based on the meeting, our team will start conducting the census of foreigners on Thursday,” he said, referring all further questions to the provincial authority.

Ban Heng, Pursat provincial deputy police chief and head of the force’s immigration department, said that nearly 30 officers will begin the door-to-door census in the province’s Bakan and Kandieng districts.